Marketing is a key component of a successful business.
Attracting new customers and retaining a loyal following ensures your business keeps generating income. With so many ways to market, it can feel overwhelming trying to find what works best for your budget, business personality, and the type of customers you have.
Advertising is a great way to attract attention and deliver messages and information about your business, but it can be a one-way conversation where you’re conveying information without any engagement from your target audience.
FREE Checklist: 12 Ways To Make More Money In Your Business
Better Profits Come From Better Business Relationships
Finding ways for your customers to feel seen, heard, respected, and engaged will set your business apart from highly automated sales experiences.
Creating a balance between automation and direct engagement is the key to building relationships and generating better profits.
Automation Has Drawbacks
Automation has benefits.
It easier to streamline tasks and can make the sales process easier for you and your customer. If you use tools like sales funnels, they can be incredibly effective for first-time sales. However, automation has serious drawbacks.
As more and more companies reduce person-to-person touch points in their business, some efficiencies go up, while customer satisfaction tends to go down. Being unable to speak with someone directly or having to conduct business via self-checkout is creating a gap between what customers perceive as value from a business and the goods and services they sell.
Consumers prefer relationships when it comes to making purchases. In fact, customer satisfaction is largely tied to how they feel about their experience more than what they actually purchased.
Human Contact Fills a Psychological Need
Humans are innately designed for community.
As more and more businesses reduce direct contact with their customers, they’re more likely to have to work harder for repeat business. In fact, many customers resent having to do tasks they feel are part of the business’s responsibility.
Nowadays, businesses that engage customers directly have an edge over self-service or automated businesses. Rather than going to a kiosk to place an order or using a chatbot conversation to solve a problem, businesses that retain the human experience have an easier time building brand loyalty and repeat business.
There’s Room for Automation and Direct Services
There’s no doubt that online shopping has its place and the convenience is undeniable.
Being able to make a purchase from your home or smartphone at 2am without having to speak to anyone has its place. However, in many cases, the same person who loves shopping for some things anonymously, expects other shopping experiences to be conducted face-to-face.
Free Download: 12 Ways To Make More Money In Your Business
Every business owner wants their income to feel secure and stable. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always happen right away. Many entrepreneurs and small businesses hit income plateaus, but there are ways to push beyond them. One stream of new income might not add up to much, but if you set up more than one income stream, it can become a river of revenue and build better profits.
For more information download the checklist 12 Ways Make More Money In Your Business. Any additional income can give your business stability and growth when you reinvest it in other items that you really need in order to expand your business.